“Friendly rivalry!”

The karting scene has developed in schools over the past thirty years to the point where there are now about 28 clubs coming under the NatSKA umbrella (regulated, of course, by the MSA). In the early days of schools karting the organisation benefited a great deal from the help and support of renowned MSA Clerk Graham Keyte, who invested a lot of time, energy and advice to keep NatSKA going, and able to comply with MSA regulations. The organisation of today is a testament to him and his memory is kept alive today by the awarding of the Graham Keyte trophy to a member of NatSKA each year.

The clubs cover the length and breadth of the country and vary in size from organisations with a single driver, to large scale school teams with 50 or more drivers. All are welcome, and discussing the organisation with our newest recruit, I wanted to find out how he had found his first meeting (and, more importantly from the NatSKA organisation’s view point, whether he would be returning!) “the people I talked to on the dummy grid were helpful and chatty, which was nice – not at all like some of the clubs we’ve been to where nobody will talk to you for fear of giving something away! Put it this way, the entry for the next meeting is already in the post!” Excellent News!

If you ask a NatSKA driver what they love about going karting as part of a school team, you get a very wide variety of different answers, but a common theme to all is undoubtedly the friendship and assistance that is offered from “rival” schools. Obviously we are all naturally competitive, but at our events everyone is really friendly and we help one another as much as possible – we want the drivers to be out on the track as much as possible – regardless of where they come from!

So, is it the feeling of camaraderie that makes NatSKA so popular? Talking to some of the drivers, they tell me that they love the fact that they meet their friends a couple of times a month during the season, and that they build up real support networks among their karting friends – if they have technical problems they can go onto NatSKA’s own website forums, and ask for help and assistance from other members (if they are ready for the ribbing which will probably accompany the advice!).

NatSKA meetings are held once or twice a month during the season, but unlike Club meetings which tend to be held at the same circuits each month, the NatSKA circus travels around the country (a bit like Formula One on a much smaller scale!) with meetings held as far north as Rowrah, and as far south as Camberley and (new for this year) Forest Edge. The format of the meetings is also very different – unlike the high pressure situation of having heats and a final “shoot out,” the majority of NatSKA meetings are held having four heats with the driver’s best three scores counting towards their final, overall, position.

To build variety into the meetings, occasionally a club style meeting is held, as well as Le-Mans style Enduro team competitions (lasting up to an hour). The highlight of each year is, without doubt, the National Sprint Championships which are held in July – so how would you like to call yourself “National Champion?” – why not join us, and see if you can make the grade?

“A small grid of Junior TKMs at Hooton”

One of the things that you do notice when you visit a NatSKA meeting, is the sheer size of the grids – where else do you go and find an entry of 42 Junior TKMs? – and that is for a normal meeting…not the National Championships where, even more turn out! And before you turn grey at the very thought of 42 going into the first corner – that obviously isn’t the case – split grids are the order of the day, with each driver driving in four heats out of the six available.

So when can you start? Drivers can join the organisation from the age of 10, most novices choosing to start with Four Stroke Honda Karts (don’t any body mention a lawn mower!) It is then usual to progress to 85cc Raket engine powered karts from Sweden (not used in club racing). Grids in this class regularly exceed 25 drivers, so you can imagine the racing is very close! From there drivers progress to 100cc Junior TKMs (from age 12) – the most popular and “eyes wide shut” class, or on to 100cc Rotary / Reeds, or Rotax (from age 14).

 Before you can become a NatSKA driver, you must first complete a simple oral test regarding safety and flag signals. This allows you to become a “novice” driver where you can take part in practice sessions, which mean, before you can qualify as a “racing” driver you must complete a certain number of events and be observed to have driven in a “competent manner”. You are also required to look at the sport from the safety perspective – each novice driver having to get their licence signed off after completing four separate “stints” as a marshall….before we let you go racing, you have to demonstrate that you are safe to be let loose!

Being a driver does have other hidden benefits – if you decided to join a local club and start MSA racing, your NatSKA licence provides you with an exemption from having to complete the ARKS test!

Apart from the fact that the organisation is school based, is there an educational aspect to the racing? Well, karting provides a tremendous stimulus to all concerned – as a school or youth group activity, it covers a wide range of educational, academic, technological, social and sporting subjects – where else would you find 11 year olds learning the skills required to keep a two stroke kart at tip top performance,

and how many 16 year olds have had to develop web-design abilities (and if you want to know how good they are, have a look at the NatSKA website!). NatSKA karting aims to develop the drivers’ skills in an all-round way, not just on the circuit. How many 15 and 16 year olds do you know who have had the opportunity to meet and chat with the “movers and the shakers” of the motor sport world? All this experience means that we are developing the confidence of our drivers and preparing them for the real world. 

“I’m sure there’s something missing from this kart!”

So where might you have seen us before? Well, if you caught the TV show “Vroom, Vroom” you might have seen Emma Parker-Bowles take the NatSKA challenge….after two days with us at Rowrah, she managed to achieve a phenomenal last place in the Junior TKM class! You might also have seen us on the CBBC channel when one of their viewers was challenged to “Do Something Different”…..in both cases the kart driving got the better of our visitors – but it was nice to welcome them and show them that kids really do have fun in karts (oh, and we are REALLY fast and competitive too!)

And what about the social side of kart racing NatSKA style? Well, I think it is fair to say we have great fun, with a vibrant social scene (especially at multi day meetings). Quite often large numbers of our members decide to camp at the circuits meaning that there is a “party” every other weekend during the season!

Sadly, drivers have to retire when they leave full time secondary education (year 13)…so if you old guys reading this think you might have been bitten by the NatSKA bug, then sorry, but if you are older than 18, you’re too late! If you do meet our age related criteria, and think that you would like to find out more information about joining NatSKA, a good first point of contact is our web site www.natska.co.uk – from there you can email the people behind the organisation, and get specific answers to your questions. …we look forward to seeing you sometime soon – we feel sure that you won’t be able to resist coming for a peek!